This report is focused around Lost and Found data using the intakes and outcomes data received for 2019-2021 (up to August). Its goal is to reflect everything we could learn about L&F from the available data, make sure the numbers we see make sense, and highlight things that would be useful to show but some/all data required for them are missing.
Date range: 2019-01-01 to 2021-08-31
Scroll down or use the table of contents on the left to navigate throughout the document. Most sections contain multiple tabs showing different facets of a data type. Most plots are interactive, meaning they include tooltips and allow hiding and showing parts and zooming in and out. If something went wrong, look for the house icon in the top right corner of each figure to reset.
This section provides an overview of the RTH rate per year divided by species.
This table covers all strays and RTHs. Animals younger than 4 weeks are excluded from stray and RTH calculations. RTH rates shown below are the number of strays with RTO outcome out of all strays.
When we go over this, let’s make sure we calculate the rate the same way you do, so we would want to make sure what we see makes sense. If these numbers are right, they are lower than the national and HASS averages, which are at 30% RTH rate (for dogs) and about the same as the RTH rate for cats (3%).
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 2203 | 45 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2020 | 1349 | 26 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2021 | 794 | 35 | 0.04 |
| Dog | 2019 | 1432 | 332 | 0.23 |
| Dog | 2020 | 952 | 248 | 0.26 |
| Dog | 2021 | 684 | 161 | 0.24 |
| Other | 2019 | 461 | 7 | 0.02 |
| Other | 2020 | 417 | 1 | 0.00 |
This one only counts animals who came in as strays from the field, which is anything except the intake subtype of ‘Public Drop Off’. Normally, we would then split these by RTH method between RTO in the field and in the shelter, but here we will just look at the RTH rate as a whole for animals that were not dropped off by the public.
Like the overall rate, there has been a big improvement in 2020 onwards, but numbers are lower than the overall ones, which suggests the RTH rates for public drop offs would be higher.
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 1186 | 24 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2020 | 839 | 17 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2021 | 527 | 19 | 0.04 |
| Dog | 2019 | 945 | 226 | 0.24 |
| Dog | 2020 | 650 | 176 | 0.27 |
| Dog | 2021 | 472 | 107 | 0.23 |
| Other | 2019 | 406 | 7 | 0.02 |
This shows the numbers only for public drop offs. We can see that the rates for these have been consistently better than the intakes from other strays across all three years for which we have data for.
| Species | Year | Strays | RTH_Count | RTH_Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | 2019 | 1017 | 21 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2020 | 510 | 9 | 0.02 |
| Cat | 2021 | 267 | 16 | 0.06 |
| Dog | 2019 | 487 | 106 | 0.22 |
| Dog | 2020 | 302 | 72 | 0.24 |
| Dog | 2021 | 212 | 54 | 0.25 |
| Other | 2020 | 58 | 1 | 0.02 |
These three time series show the RTH rate per month, to show whether there were times with particularly high or low rates as well as the overall trajectory.
The improvement from 2019 onwards is noticeable (right at the turn of the year), so we would be curious to hear about your program or policy changes that might be related to that change. The dip around end of 2020 early 2021 is perhaps also worth talking about.
This is the same figure, but only counting field strays (again, anything marked as something other than public drop off). Looks pretty similar.
This figure only counts strays who did not come from the field. Despite the zig-zags there is a steady increase, and the rates are much higher than those from the ‘field’ (the other figure). It’s also unusually zig-zagy in a way that complements the Field rates – so while August and November 2020 were lows above, they are peak RTH rates in this one.
This section shows the number of stray intakes over time, as well as the breakdown of strays by field/shelter intake.
The average difference in length of stay (in days) between strays with RTH outcomes and all other strays is shown in the table below – roughly 8 days for dogs and 18 for cats. That means that every successful RTH saves 8 days of care on average (for dogs) at BARCS.
| Species | Outcome | Count | Average_Length_Of_Stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | Other Outcomes | 3249 | 20.08 |
| Cat | RTO | 106 | 4.96 |
| Dog | Other Outcomes | 1864 | 10.27 |
| Dog | RTO | 741 | 2.17 |
The following maps show stray intake and RTH rate by ZIP codes to highlight geographical patterns. The first and second tab are similar to previous metrics; the third tab, RTH Gap, shows the number of strays who were not returned home per ZIP code.
This combines the other two tabs to highlight where most additional RTH potential exists. As the RTH rate is uniformly high across the city, the areas with more stray intakes stand out.
The following maps show stray intake and RTH rate by ZIP codes to highlight geographical patterns. The first and second tab are similar to previous metrics; the third tab, RTH Gap, shows the number of strays who were not returned home per ZIP code.
This combines the other two tabs to highlight where most additional RTH potential exists. As the RTH rate is uniformly high across the city, the areas with more stray intakes stand out.
Is there a difference in the time it took owners to redeem their dogs based on where they were found? This might be better answered using the outcome (owner’s) ZIP code rather than the found one, but that is what we have on file for the time being. This map only shows dogs that were strays and had an RTH outcome.
Two areas stand out as having longer RTH time on average – 21215 and 21212.
450 of the 9337 stray animals did not have a ZIP code listed (taken from the Jurisdiction field). 130 had no value, while the rest had written values (‘outside Baltimore’).
0 out of 9337 strays did not have a found location – which is amazing!
Only 204 animals had the found location of the shelter (including both addresses - Giles and Stockholm).
Intake subtype had two values that seem to be the same: ‘Stray - under 3 months’ and ‘Under 3 months’, used for 212 and 208 animals, respectively. 7 animals had a subtype of ‘surrendered’, which might be worth removing for simplicity.
We got data up to August 2021, so only a month missing from what we had asked so far (September), so you’re doing well!
Other things we could show if we had the data for it:
Thanks for reading through, and we’re looking forward to talking through it and thinking about more ways to make this data useful for you.